Schiffer, 39, will be proudly showing off her bump in the magazine's June issue, which hits newsstands on Wednesday. She is expecting her third child "in a matter of days," Vogue said.

"There are probably not many other women who have been photographed as often as Claudia. But she has never been seen in such a different way," said the magazine's editor, Christiane Arp.

Schiffer, who first graced the cover of German Vogue nearly 20 years ago and has appeared 11 times since, said: "It was important to show how beautiful womanhood is."

The pose bears a striking resemblance to a controversial edition of Vanity Fair in 1991 when Hollywood film star Demi Moore, then seven months pregnant, appeared nude.

Lagerfeld himself is no stranger to controversy, making the news recently for saying that no one wanted to see "curvy" models, after a prominent German women's magazine said it would publish only pictures of "real women."